Memoirs of Delving, The Ptolus Years

High Adventure and Bad Food, all in the shadow of the Spire

In Which Our Heroes become involved in a Dometic Situation

1st of Wind, 721

“What do you mean – missing?” blurted Geist.

“She hasn’t been to the chapel in days. I asked around, and she hasn’t been to work either. I stopped by her apartment, and her neighbors haven’t seen hide or hair of her all week. I was hoping you could look into it…”

“Fine, I guess we can spare the time,” said Lucius.

“Hey – you need to be nicer to the pregnant lady!” said Vega.

“So, do you know who her boyfriend is?” asked Lucius.

“Actually – I have dug that up. He’s something of an important preist.”

“In The Church of Lothian?”

“No, the Watcher of the Skies. Normally I wouldn’t break a trust like this, but under the circumstances – he’s Helmut Itelstein-”

“The head of the Republican Movement?” blurted Lucius.

“Ah, well, he is the High Astronomer-Priest of the Watcher of the Skies.”

As the sun sank below the horizon and a cold wind began to blow off the bay, the party arrived at Phon’s apartment.

In which Our Heroes do some Investigations

The 26th to the 29th of Birth, 721

During the party’s week of recuperation, Lucious spent several days casting spells over the golden amulet they had taken from the priestess in the Ratmen Warren. He learned that the amulet was 3 years old, it had been owned by the priestess, it’s purpose was to identify leaders of the cult – and most interestingly of all, it had been forged by someone named “Silion Ankismar” at “The Temple of the Rat God.”

Meanwhile, the Party continued to investigate the baby they had rescued from the cultists. Lucious’ spells proved unable to divine any insight as to the child’s origin, and Illumtar’s research revealed that no babies had recently gone missing. Finally, after a conversation with an Akashic in Danbury’s Lucious took the child to the city’s Akashic Guildhall where the Guildmaster revealed that the child did not seem to exist in the Akashic Memory – either the child’s history had been completely erased via some dark sorcery, or the child had not existed before a week ago.

30th of Birth, 721

Fresh from a week of rest and ceremonial preparations, Mathis, Vega, and Abyssia headed to the Cock Pit for some gambling. A significant number of Gold Thrones moved back and forth across the Dragonscales table, and the three made the acquaintance, and limited friendship, of the dealer, one Ianto Jones.

Conversation with Jones turned to the Ratmen, and Jones said that he had heard that activity in the Temple District was on the rise.

Fresh from completing their magical ceremonies, they were joined by Geist and Lucius. Geist stuck up a conversation with the bartender, one Agravain – and introduced himself as Velen Killmore. The conversation soon turned to wanted dark-elf thief Shilukar, and Agravain revealed the following facts: Shilukar had lifted several items of value from House Abanar, and was rumored to use gnolls as henchmen. Having gained the confidence of the bartended, Geist also learned one other fact: rumor had it that Shilukar used a fence named Ammel Dar.

The 1st of Wind, 721

The next morning, the party visited the Temple District to see if they could find a lead as to the increased Ratman activity. On the street of a million gods, they ran into another delving company of four members, who were just returning from a sojurn into the sewers and were looking for healing. The leader of this other party, Owen, said that they had run into ratmen almost without end in the sewers under the district, and that they did seem to be working with human cultists.

The party then dropped by Phon’s shop for some new and fancier clothes, and made their way to the Noble’s District.

At the top of the street they stopped at a Tea & Coffee vendor, and Geist struck up a conversation with the young and beautiful Branwyn who was working the stall.

The party then stopped by Castle Shard – convieniently in time for lunch, where Cadmus welcomed them, fed them lunch, and told them that the Lord and Lady were unavailable, but that Lord Abercrombe was still frozen.

The party then paid a visit to House Abanar, where they were granted an interview with a Monsigneur Culwych. Culwych revealed that Shilukar’s identity had been revealed via divination, but that his location remained a secret – hidden from their sorcery. Additionally, Shilukar seemed to be using sorcery to enter and exit the House – and at the scene of the last crime, they had found copious amounts of thick blue hair.

Finally, the party tracked down Ammel Dar, whose confidence they quickly gained. He revealed that he had fenced several items for Shilukar, but hadn’t seen him in several weeks. Shuilukar had implied to him that he had been living with a minor crime lord named Linech Cran, and that he was planning to lend the money he was making to this crime lord.

Laden down with new information, they returned home that evening to find Brother Fabitor waiting anxiously for them.

In Which Our Heroes Stumble into a Ratmen Nest

The party awoke, still with no sign of Valen. Assuming him to have been arrested with the other protesters, and now landen with a baby of unknown parentage, the party began to unravel their problems.

Dispatching the young man, Illumatar, to find the location of Valen and any sign of the baby’s parents, the party investigated the sewer grate that the last Plagueborn cultist was seen heading towards.

In Which Our Heroes Interrupt some Cultists and Start a Riot

In Which Our Heroes Divest Themselves Of The Demon-Haunted Watch and Indulge In Some Delving For Profit

(April 29, 2009)9th to 21st of Birth, 721 IA

The wind howled.

Outside the Ghostly Minstrel, rain battered against the windows. Linech’s watch sat in the center of the table, the torchlight of the inn’s common room glinting off its gold case.

Over dinner, many options for the watch’s future were discussed. Finally, a decision was made: return the watch to its owner in exchange for the Golden Statue, and trust that the seals placed by the Pale Tower would hold the demon in check until the watch could be retrieved and stored in the Suppression Vaults for all time.

The next morning, The Party arrived at Castle Shard mysteriously close to breakfast time. As always, the Majordomo, Kadmus, was present to welcome them and escort them to the main hall. There, the Party graciously accepted the castle’s offer of food and sat down to a delicious, if simple, meal.

The Party explained to Lord Zevere that they had arranged to obtain the statue from Linech, but would need a way to transport the statue back to Castle Shard. Lord Zevere offered them the loan of an Animated Cart, capable of transporting a one-ton Golden Statue from Rivergate back to the Castle. When the Party further explained that the statue was on the second floor of a building, Kadmus produced a small statuette of a figure lifting a large stone, explaining that its magic should suffice to get the statue into the cart.

There was a chill in the air and a faint sprinkling of rain kept the streets of Ptolus slick as the Party arrived at Toridan’s Burrow at the back of Rivergate. The Burrow was practically teeming with Linech’s henchmen, all of whom seemed on edge and ill at ease. However, the few who took notice of the Party’s arrival paid them little heed, pointing them on towards Linech’s office at the back of the Burrow.

In his office on the second floor, Linechwas in an ill mood. Seanus stood by the front door of the room, nervously fidgeting with a dagger. Linech’s dwarven bodyguard stood against the wall behind the desk, fingering his axe. Linech’s girfriend lay across a couch, seemingly unconscious as the Golden Statue loomed over her.

As the Party entered the room, Linech pulled his well-chewed cigar from his mouth.

“Well, fellas? Ya got the watch?”

Geist stepped forward and placed the watch on the table. Entering last, Lucius took the opportunity to cast Detect Thoughts while no one else was looking.

“Here it is. And you’ll be relieved to hear that the other issue has been… taken care of.”

Linech was visibly relieved. He picked up the watch and sat in his chair with an audible sigh.

Waving his cigar over the watch, Linech began to grumble an incantation.

“Object Loresight,” muttered Lucius under his breath, having read the spell from the surface of Linech’s mind. “Good thing we delivered the original.”

His spell completed, Linech looked back up at the Party, his face a beaming smile.

“Excellent work, my lads! Excellent!” He waved at the dwarf, who produced a case. The dwarf opened the case, revealing it to be full of gold pieces.

“I believe this should settle things, what?”

“And the statue,” Geist said, nodding in the statue’s direction.

“Quite so! Quite so. I’m sorry to see such a fine piece go, but a deal’s a deal, right my lads? You have a way to get it out of here, I take it?”

In answer, Mathius broke the figurine in front of the statue. Briefly surrounded by a nimbus of light and the faint outline of a figure holding it up, the larger statue became unencumbered by its own weight and floated gently from the floor.

The party removed themselves and the statue to the cart. The left the Barrow with the statue, leaving behind Linech talking in an excited whisper with the dwarf – and Geist hidden in the shadows of the Barrow’s street.

As the rest of the Party sped towards Castle Shard with their winnings, Geist waited patiently to see what Linech’s next move would be. He didn’t have long to wait – not ten minutes after the Party’s cart has vanished from sight did Linech, the dwarf, and a half-dozen other legbreakers climb into Linech’s carriage and speed out of the Burrow. Geist jogged after them and then flagged down a passing cab with instructions to follow at a discrete distance.

Linech’s carraige finally stopped in front of a large tavern on Midtown’s Tavern Row. A sign above the door named the place as the Onyx Spider. Linech and his henchmen hurried inside.

Geist gave the place a once-over: a large, two story building. Lots of windows, but all of them shuttered with thick curtains. He returned to his cab, and showed a coin to the driver.

“Know anything about this place?”

“Officially? No one knows anything about that place. Unofficially?” the driver looked pointedly at the coin in Geist’s hand. “That’s the kind of place you go if you have business to do you’d rather not, ah, pay taxes on, ya follow? Especially with, shall we say, businessmen of… some renown?”

“I understand. This is yours if you can tell me where they went in there and who they’re meeting with.” He slapped the coin into the driver’s hand.

The driver nodded and headed into the building. Geist sat in the cab to wait.

The Party arrived at Castle Shard to find Kadmus again standing in the entrance waiting for them. He smiled in greeting.

“The Lord and Lady will be more than overjoyed to have this statue returned to them. You have their thanks.” He waved at the cart, which wheeled itself into the depths of the castle.

“The Lords have instructed me to pay you your well-deserved rewards,” he said, handing a leather wallet to the Party, “as well as their thanks.”

Satisfied with a decent morning’s work the Party returned to the Ghostly Minstrel.

The cab driver emerged from the Onyx Spider wiping his mouth. Geist seized his arm.

“Took you long enough! Did you have to drink the entire bar, or just the entire selection of Palastani whiskeys?”

The driver shrugged. “Had to get an ale or two. Would’a looked suspicious otherwise.”

“Fine. Where are they?”

“The half-orc and the dwarf went straight into the far back right booth. The rest of the gang spread out and ordered a round of drinks. Didn’t drink all that much, just sipped at them and looked nervous.”

“Who was Linech meeting with?”

“Couldn’t see, gov, sorry. The curtain was drawn, and they only opened it enough to step though. Couldn’t tell who was on the other side. That’s all I know. Can I give you a ride anywhere?”

“Well, since you didn’t even do what I paid you for, drop me off at Delver’s Square and we’ll call it even.”

The Party reconvened in the common room of the Ghostly Minstrel. Confident that the watch was secure for the time being, they turned their attention to the ceremonies they had been neglecting. After a week’s preparation, Val spent an entire day in his room chanting. Geist and Mathius spent their time crafting a new firearm to replace the increasingly battered dragon rifle Geist had bartered for at the Smoke Shop so many weeks ago.

Vega spent some time with Phon, who was increasingly showing her delicate condition. While Phon still refused to discuss who the father of the baby was, saying only that he was out of the picture, Vega did learn one new fact: Phon’s due date had been set as the 15th of Bloom by Brother Fabitor at St. Gustav’s.

Taking advantage of his companion’s down-time, Lucius spent many hours pouring over the maps in the Delver’s Guild Library. The maproom revealed itself to be somewhat of a mixed blessing: the Guild was in possession of many, many maps of the Dungeon beneath the city, providing a substantial amount of detail about the areas under the city that Delvers had explored. However, these same areas were also the places that the Delvers had thoroughly looted, leaving much to be desired in the way of potential winnings. However, he did find an incomplete sketch of a map of an area of the Labyrinth beneath Midtown that seemed to have been lost in the stacks and the area never having been returned to. Returning with a copy, he and the rest of the party decided this map seemed their best lead into the Dungeon.

Leaving behind a morning think with fog and drizzle, the Party made their way through the Undercity Market and wound their way through the Labyrinth until they arrived at the area indicated by their map. Descending a flight of ancient stone stairs, they found themselves in what seemed to be a complex of rooms that was, at least at one time, part of Ghul’s Labyrinth.

Disarming a series of door’s whose antiquated traps still functioned, they made their way to a large chamber still in southern part of the complex. This part of the Labyrinth was in usually poor repair – the room was filed knee-deep with a pool of murky water, fed by a stream entering the room via a collapsed wall. Rooting around in this pool with their backs turned to the Party was a band of four ogres.

Vega activated her Ninja Invisibility Powers and lept towards the first of the Ogres, who was slain almost before his companions could notice and battle was joined.

The Party made short work of the remaining ogres, leaving their corpses to rot in the underground pool.

The ogres had no possessions of note, but rooting around in the the pool themselves, the Party fished out a massive sword, whose blade glowed dimly even through the muck of the ages it must have spent beneath the streets of Ptolus.

In Which Our Heroes Learn A Terrible Secret About A Small Girl And Aquire A Golden Watch

(April 10, 2009)9th of Birth, 721 IA

The Waves Crashed.

The Party infiltrates the caves, finding them to be infested with not only Sahuagan but also deeply worried smugglers. The cause of their worry is soon revealed: Linech’s daughter Linelle is not as dead as everyone thought; nor is she alive – she seems to have become a vampire.

The Party concoct a daring plan to escape with the girl (and the watch she carries) under the nose of the smugglers. Their plan is aided by the sudden defection of two slaves of the smugglers, one of which is a lizardman with bells tied all over his body called mockingly by the other smugglers by the less that complimentary sobriquet of “Sir Jingles.”

Returning to the surface, the Party separates. Mattius and Geist go with Seanus to report to Linech as Lucious takes the watch to Castle Shard and the rest of the Party remains to guard the girl, hidden from both the sun and the undead-hating city guard within the cabin of the boat.

In order to delay their errand, Geist picks a fight with a local drunk and is thrown in the hoosegow by an unsympathetic guardsman, and Mathius pays the cab driver handsomly to take the long route to Rivergate and Linech.

Lucious, meanwhile learns a shocking truth from the Lord and Lady of Castle Shard: the watch is inhabited by a Demon.

Finally arriving at Linech’s Barrow, Mathius convinces Linech to come and see wha they’ve found of his daughter. He reluctantly agrees, and on arrival at the boat is attacked by a furious Linelle. Screaming for the Party to rescue him, Linech agrees to double their pay and hand over the statue if they can “deal with” his daughter and return the watch to them. The party agrees and subdues Linelle in the boat once more.

Linech leaves, agreeing also to spring Geist from the city lockup.

The Party delivers Linelle to the Brotherhood of Redeption, who promise to do all they can for the unfortunate girl.

Unwilling to simply hand over a Demon-Hauted watch to a local hood like Linech, the party takes the watch to Pale Tower to see if the Malakuth can be of any assistance.

Met in the lobby by a massive Stone Golem covered in runes and calling itself only “The Graven”, the Party explains their predicament. The Graven offers to store the watch in their Suppression Vaults to insure the demon causes no trouble. The Party thanks the golem, but explain they have to physically deliver the watch to Linech.

After some cajoling, the Graven offers to wrap the watch in a web of enchantments designed to keep the demon locked within the timepiece. The party happily agrees, and the golem soon returns the watch to them, now surrounded by magical energy.

With this newly secure watch in hand, the Party determined that only one course of action lay open to them at this point: dinner.